For the
first time in at least 75 years, less than three-fourths of the nationís registered
voters are registered "Democratic" or "Republican."

New registration
data, shown on the chart on page four, shows that the percentage of voters
registered "independent" or as members of minor parties now exceeds
25%. Of course, this data is solely from the 30 jurisdictions in which people
register into parties on registration forms. The other 21 states are excluded
because they donít have partisan registration.

Declining
major party membership is surprising, since the race for the Democratic presidential
nomination has motivated some voters to switch to the Democratic party, so
as to be able to vote in Democratic primaries.

Ballot
Access News has been printing registration statistics by party in all
even-numbered years, starting in 1992. In addition, the editor has registration
data for most states that is much older (in some cases, 90 years old). For
years now, the percentage of people registered in the major parties has been
slowly declining. In 1992, 48% of voters in the "registration states"
were Democrats, and 34% were Republicans, leaving only 18% of the voters in
other categories. Currently, Democrats are 42%, Republicans are 33%, and 25%+
are "other."

The vast
majority of the "other" voters are independents. Although Green
and Libertarian registration is at an all-time high (whether looking at raw
numbers or percentages) that registration is still low. Members of all minor
parties still comprise fewer than 2% of the voters.

Democrats
have 42.19%, Republicans 32.78%, Constitution .36%; Green .34%, Libertarian
.27%, Reform .07%, Natural Law .04%, American .01%. The various one-state
parties, together, are .78%. See page four for a state-by-state list.

The Constitution
Party still has more voters than any other minor party. However, that partyís
affiliates in California and Nevada have names that include the word "Independent"
(the California party is the American Independent Party, and the Nevada one
is the Independent American Party). Virtually all neutral observers believe
that many voters who intend to register "independent" wind up in
those parties by accident. Neither stateís voter registration form offers
an "independent" box to choose. People who donít wish to be members
of any party are supposed to check "declines to state" on the California
form, and "no party affiliation" on the Nevada form. If those two
states had an "independent" check-box, probably the proportion of
voters registering in the Constitution Party would be smaller.

New Yorkís
Independence Party, with 2.48% of its stateís registration, probably gains
from the same confusion. No other minor party has such a high share of any
stateís voters.

PROCEDURAL
VICTORY IN NORTH CAROLINA

On December
24, U.S. District Court Judge Frank Bullock, a Reagan appointee, dismissed
all of North Carolinaís procedural objections to the lawsuit DeLaney v
Bartlett, 1:02cv-741, m.d. The issue is whether North Carolina may require
statewide independent candidates to submit approximately 100,000 valid signatures,
when new parties "only" need 58,842.

A secondary
issue is whether the independent candidate requirement is too vague. The law
says statewide independents need signatures equal to 2% of the registered
voters, but the law doesnít say the date of the appropriate registration tally.
Obviously, the number of registered voters changes constantly.

The state
has not yet expressed any reasons why so many more signatures are required
for statewide independents. If the purpose of ballot access laws is to keep
ballots uncluttered, North Carolinaís scheme is irrational. A new party may
nominate someone for every partisan office in the state, and thus one new
party can add many names to the November ballot. But a single statewide independent
petition only adds one name to the ballot.

Now that
the stateís procedural objections have lost, the state must submit a brief
to try to justify its law.

RHODE
IS. VICTORY

On January
26, the Rhode Island Supreme Court ruled that when election officials invalidate
signatures on a petition, circulators then may submit affidavits from people
whose signatures were invalidated. If these affidavits show that the signatures
really are valid, those signatures must be counted. Edwards v Rhode Island
Board of Elections, 2004-7.

U.S.
Senator John Edwards filed the case. He had submitted 1,245 signatures to
be in the Democratic presidential primary. 1,000 are needed. The Secretary
of State had said Edwards only had 918 valid signatures. Edwards appealed
to the State Election Board, which ruled that 976 signatures were valid.

Edwards
then sued, alleging that the Board should count the signatures of people who
had signed with their new address, even though they are still registered at
their old address, but in the same town. He collected affidavits from such
signers. Edwards also collected affidavits from some signers whose names had
been invalidated because their signatures were illegible.

The Court
told the Board to analyze the affidavits. On January 28, the Board ruled that
Edwards now has 1,000 valid signatures.

The decision
is very disappointing. This case had been filed in 2000, and proponents had
been waiting for a decision ever since early 2002, when evidence-gathering
had closed. The decision is shallow. It assumes that post office sidewalks
and parking lots are "public fora," but still upholds the ban. The
judge used anecdotal evidence that some circulators have been rude and aggressive.
However, the post office permits leafletting on its sidewalks and parking
lots, and some leafletters are also rude and aggressive. Plaintiffs will appeal.

Kentucky:
on January 16, the 6th circuit struck down a Kentucky law that
prohibits petitioning within 500 feet of the polls. Anderson v Spear, 02-5529.
The decision was by Judge Alice Batchelder, a Bush Sr. appointee. It was co-signed
by Judge Eugene Siler (Bush Sr.), and Judge Deborah Cook ( Bush Jr.).

Kentucky
has already indicated that it will not appeal. On January 27, the House passed
HB 344, to change the 500 foot barrier to 250 feet. The case had not been
brought by someone who was petitioning at the polls. Instead, the plaintiff
was a write-in candidate for Governor of Kentucky in the 1999 election. His
campaign volunteers wanted to pass out instructions on how to cast a write-in
vote (some states post such instructions at the polls, but Kentucky doesnít).
The write-in candidate, Hobart Anderson, only polled 3,323 write-ins in the
state.

The decision
also struck down certain campaign finance laws, such as one banning campaign
contributions during the last four weeks of a campaign. However, that part
of the ruling only relates to write-in candidates, since they are never eligible
for public campaign funding.

JUSTICE
SCALIA MENTIONS THIRD PARTIES

U.S.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has been unsympathetic to minor parties.
In 1992, when the Court majority ruled in favor of the Harold Washington Party
(a party organized only in Cook County, Illinois) in a ballot access case
called Norman v Reed, Scalia was the only justice to dissent. In 1992
he also voted that states may ban write-in space on ballots. In 1998 he voted
that Public TV can sponsor a debate and invite only the major party nominees.
In 1997 he voted that states may make it illegal for two political parties
to jointly nominate the same candidate.

On December
10, 2003, oral argument was held in the U.S. Supreme Court in Vieth v Jubelirer,
02-1580, the case over whether extreme partisan gerrymandering violates
the 14th amendment. At the hearing, Scalia asked the attorney for
the plaintiffs this question, "What if you have more than two parties?
I mean, like Minnesota, where you have besides the Republicans and Democrats
a very strong Farmer-Labor Party?"

It is
true that Minnesota had a 3-party system between 1918 and 1942. The Farmer-Labor
Party, the Republican Party, and the Democratic Party, all elected members
of Congress during most elections in those years. And itís also true that
when there are three strong parties, it is very difficult for partisan gerrymanders
to succeed. Thus, Scalia asked a very good question, if we can assume that
he was aware that the Farmer-Labor Party existed in the past, not the present
(the party merged with the Democratic Party in 1944).

On the
other hand, if Scalia thinks the Farmer-Labor Party exists today as a third
party, he is uninformed. And he may well be misinformed. In 1996, he stated
during oral argument that New York state has a 3-party system, a statement
that no political scientist would agree with. A "two-party system"
is one in which two parties win virtually all the elections, and that definition
fits New York, as it fits all states in the U.S. currently.

ALABAMA
LIKELY TO OK PRES. STAND-INS

The Alabama
Secretary of Stateís office is about to approve an independent candidate petition
form that will allow the form to be circulated before the presidential candidate
is identified.

Alabama
requires so many signatures for a new party (41,012) that no minor party will
even attempt to qualify this year as a "party." Instead, all the
minor parties will use the independent presidential petition, which only needs
5,000 signatures.

The problem
with the old independent petition form is that it traditionally requires the
presidential candidate to be named on that petition. Yet the various minor
parties, for the most part, wonít choose their presidential candidates until
May, June or July. The new form will allow these parties to start collecting
signatures now. The new form will probably list the candidates for presidential
elector and explain that they are pledged to whoever is nominated at that
groupís presidential convention.

MONTANA
RULING

On January
28, Montanaís Secretary of State ruled that he will conduct a primary for
any qualified party which has a contested nomination.

Last
year, the legislature passed a bill depriving qualified parties of a primary,
unless they have at least one contested primary, and unless they have
candidates for most of the statewide offices. In 2004, there are 7 statewide
offices up for election.

Two individuals
will seek the Green Party gubernatorial nomination, but the Green Party will
not have nominees for as many as four of the eight posts. Therefore, under
the 2003 law, the Green Party couldnít have a primary, which left it no legal
option to choose a gubernatorial nominee. The Secretary of State ruled that
the intent of the law was not to deprive any party of a primary. His implication
was that it was a drafting error, which will be fixed next time the legislature
meets, in 2005.

LAWSUIT
NEWS

California:
on January 15, a State Court of Appeals ruled that voters listed as "inactive"
donít count, when a group is trying to qualify as a political party based
on its registration tally. The Peace & Freedom Party, which lost this
case, really isnít injured as a result, since the party had already qualified
on the basis of active voters last year anyway. Peace & Freedom Party
v Shelley, C040466.

California
(2): on January 12, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Van Susteren
v Shelley, 03-601. The issue was a law barring candidates from a primary
ballot if they switched parties during the 23 months before a general election.
The plaintiff-candidate had tried to run for Congress as a Libertarian in
2002.

Florida:
on January 16, Congressman Robert Wexler filed a state court lawsuit against
voting machines that do not leave an audit trail. Wexler v Hood, 50-2004-ca-491,
15th jud. Ct.

Florida
(2): on January 15, a U.S. District Court ruled that blind voters must be
furnished with voting machines that have audio systems, so that they can cast
secret ballots. American Assn of People with Disabilities v Hood, 3:01-cv-1275.

Illinois:
on January 26, the Green Party lost a ballot access lawsuit. Weiss v Shelden,
2003-MR-756. The party had polled over 5% of the vote for Congress in
Champaign County in 2002, and argued that therefore it is now a qualified
party in that county. However, the court said polling 5% for congress doesnít
get a party any advantage, unless it polls 5% in the entire district. Only
six states permit a party to become fully-qualified in just a single congressional
district if it isnít qualified statewide.

Maine:
on January 23, a state court declared that write-in candidate Jeffrey Robinson
won the Saco School Board election last November. The issue was whether write-in
votes for him should count, if the voter failed to write in Robinsonís middle
initial. The judge said voter intent should control.

Ohio:
on January 6, the Libertarian Party filed a lawsuit to gain a place on the
ballot. The Secretary of State had rejected its petition because the form
was slightly different than the approved form. The party charges that the
difference in the forms is so slight, it should be overlooked. In addition,
the party argues that the November (of the year before the election) deadline
is unconstitutionally early. Libertarian Party of Ohio v Blackwell, c2:04-08,
U.S. District Court, southern district. This case is on an expedited schedule.

Pennsylvania:
on January 28, the Reform Party asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its ballot
access appeal. In re Zulick, number not assigned yet. The issue is
whether the state can allow fusion only for parties that nominate by primary,
and deny fusion to qualified parties that nominate by convention.

West
Virginia: on January 27, the federal court that had issued a temporary
injunction in the Libertarian Partyís ballot access case, made the injunction
permanent. Minor parties and independent candidates no longer need to tell
potential signers that if they sign the petition, then that signer canít vote
in the primary. McClure v Manchin, 1:3cv205.

GOOD
BILLS COMING

State
legislators in several states have agreed to introduce bills this year that
will improve ballot access laws:

Illinois:
Representative Mike Boland will introduce a bill giving minor party circulators
a later petition deadline. The bill may include other improvements as well.

Kentucky:
the Secretary of State will ask the legislature to exempt presidential candidates
from a law passed last year. That law requires all minor party candidates
to submit a declaration of candidacy on April 1.

Tennessee:
Representative Donna Rowland will introduce a bill letting candidates who
use the independent procedure choose a partisan label. All minor parties in
Tennessee always use the independent method, since the party petition is so
hard.

BALLOT
ACCESS WOES FOR DEMOCRATS

New York
eased ballot access rules for the Republican presidential primary last year,
but left tough rules in place for the Democratic presidential primary. In
order to place slates of delegates to the national convention on the ballot,
Democratic contenders needed 1,250 signatures of registered Democrats in each
congressional district. Only Howard Dean and John Edwards were able to qualify
in all districts. John Kerry was unable to qualify delegates in the 2nd,
4th, 11th, 12th, 16th, 20th,
22nd, 23rd, and 29th districts. Therefore,
the voters of those districts cannot elect Kerry delegates.

CAL.
DEMS. LIKE IRV

On January
18, the California Democratic state convention passed an addition to its Political
Reform plank. It advocates that the party "explore alternative voting
systems, including the use of Instant Runoff Voting in special elections to
fill vacancies to reduce both campaign and election expenses, and in general
elections to prevent well-meaning but misguided third-party voters from spoiling
the election of Democrats."

Similar
resolutions had been defeated in previous years.

PRES.
DEBATES

On January
12, the Citizensí Debate Commission was launched. Its goal is to wrest control
of the general election presidential debates from the Commission on Presidential
Debates. The Citizens Debate Commission is endorsed by many prominent groups.
See www.opendebates.org.

The old
Commission on Presidential Debates is unduly biased against minor party and
independent candidates. Also, the old Commission invariably structures its
debates so that no true debate actually occurs. The old Commissionís debates
are so uninteresting, the audience for them has been declining each presidential
election year, and hit a record low in 2000.

JANUARY
2004 REGISTRATION TOTALS

Dem.

Rep.

Indp,
misc

Constitut.

Green

Libít.

Reform

Nat
Law

other

Alaska

71,784

118,928

243,799

?

4,779

7,331

?

?

21,408

Ariz.

787,978

922,011

513,970

?

1,737

15,628

?

?

0

Calif.

6,735,349

5,448,469

2,484,284

298,963

166,740

89,760

51,807

37,278

77,734

Colorado

852,910

1,042,296

907,637

142

5,602

5,769

382

634

0

Conn.

623,453

422,027

774,609

250

1,964

643

73

?

431

Delaware

214,456

171,446

117,775

279

615

754

227

289

0

Dt.
Col.

257,330

25,707

51,398

?

4,672

?

?

?

0

Florida

3,921,434

3,604,205

1,798,805

336

6,231

12,303

4,630

310

0

Iowa

531,658

583,889

698,900

0

116

0

0

0

0

Kansas

421,876

715,724

398,778

0

0

8,792

1,703

0

0

Kentucky

1,589,658

954,294

176,973

?

?

?

?

?

0

Louisiana

1,462,799

597,794

474,820

39

855

1,369

2,900

23

178

Maine

298,447

277,059

358,384

?

16,169

?

?

?

0

Maryland

1,550,263

834,419

385,294

?

6,017

?

?

?

0

Mass.

1,399,255

513,889

1,936,231

33

8,987

21,170

1,469

56

0

Nebraska

374,952

540,707

151,264

?

137

4,375

1

?

2,053

Nevada

367,943

376,386

141,224

17,707

2,710

5,204

196

976

0

N.Hamp.

176,634

253,504

260,021

?

?

?

?

?

0

N.Jersey

1,140,970

879,304

2,520,936

37

422

294

78

25

?

N.
Mex.

483,197

302,671

130,505

?

10,423

3,051

?

?

?

N.York

5,125,534

3,069,153

2,200,030

?

36,282

5

?

?

577,074

No.
Car.

2,392,369

1,733,894

893,017

?

?

10,122

?

?

0

Okla.

1,022,442

720,121

195,334

?

?

455

25

?

0

Oregon

720,946

677,977

427,847

2,111

14,387

15,020

?

?

375

Pennsy.

3,607,414

3,162,367

790,812

?

8,597

28,591

?

?

0

Rhode
I.

242,008

64,279

333,986

?

348

?

?

?

0

So.
Dak.

175,426

218,903

59,816

?

?

1,294

73

?

0

Utah

81,312

317,186

909,986

122

883

2,273

163

79

16,238

W.Va.

614,597

309,396

114,915

?

28

1,094

1

?

147

Wyo.

57,557

130,588

19,900

?

?

224

1

?

0

TOTAL

27,301,951

28,988,593

20,471,250

320,019

298,701

235,521

63,729

39,670

695,639

The parties
in the "Other" column are: in Alas., 17,309 Alaskan Independence
and 4,099 Republican Moderate; Peace & Freedom in Cal.; in Ct., 415 Indp.
Party and 16 Working Families; in La., American 125 and Socialist 53; Nebraska
Party in Neb.; Indp. Coalition Party in N.M.; in N.Y., Independence 273,056,
Conservative 157,437, Liberal 80,540, Right to Life 46,827, Working Families
19,214; Socialist in Ore.; in Utah, American 11,053, Indp. American 5,024,
Socialist Workers 161; Mountain in W.V. All data is late 2003 or early 2004,
except that Pennsylvania data is from May 2003, and Maine is June 2002.

A "zero"
means that voters are not permitted to register into a particular party. A
question mark means that the state has not tabulated the number of registrants
in a particular party. See the page one story for the percentages for each
party.

# allows partisan label.
* means entry changed since the last issue of B.A.N. "(reg.)" means a party must have a certain number of registered voters.
All dates in "deadline" column are 2004.
The Independent American Party has 500 in Utah.

"AMERICAN
CANDIDATE" TV SHOW

"The
American Candidate" TV show will air on Showtime later this year. It
is a "reality" show, in which 12 real people will compete for "votes"
for president. Each week, one of the presidential candidates will be voted
off the show. Viewers will be able to "vote" by internet or telephone.
The showís climax will come when the two finalists face off on the last episode.
Contestants will be paid a stipend and will be expected to travel.

Unfortunately,
due to the federal campaign laws, the show is not permitted to feature contestants
who really are running for president. Therefore, those who wish to compete
must be legally eligible to be president, but they cannot actually be running
for president. Also, individuals who hold elective office, or who are running
for any elective office this year, are ineligible. When this show was originally
proposed in 2002, the producer hoped that actual candidates (especially lesser-known
candidates) would be on his show.

Those
who wish to apply must fill out a 26 page application and submit videotape
of themselves. See
the website.

LIBERTARIANS
MAKE USE OF AMAZON

Amazon.com
has, at the very top of its website, a list of presidential candidates who
have raised at least $5,000 (according to FEC records as of November 2003).
Anyone may easily donate between $5 and $200 to any of the listed candidates.
Amazon is keeping a running tally of the number of contributors to each, and
the total amount raised.

President
Bush declined to be listed, so the only entries currently are most of the
Democratic contenders, and two Libertarian contenders, Gary Nolan and Michael
Badnarik. When new quarterly FEC reports are received this month, Amazon will
add any newly-qualifying candidates as well. During the latter part of January,
Nolan was briefly listed first, and he is running second now.

CONSTITUTION
PARTY

Petitions
to place the Constitution Party on the ballot in some states must carry the
names of the partyís candidates, although most of those states permit stand-ins.
The party wonít actually choose its nominees until June 22-27. The partyís
stand-ins are Michael Peroutka for president, and James Clymer for vice-president.
Peroutka really does hope to be the partyís presidential candidate, but Clymer
is only a stand-in and does not actually desire to run.

Former
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore spoke to a Constitution Party meeting in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, on January 24, and the audience pressed Moore to declare his
candidacy. However, he declined.

GREEN
PARTY

The only
minor party that has held a presidential primary so far this year is the Green
Party. In the District of Columbia on January 13, David Cobb received 140
votes and Sheila Bilyeu received 69. The option "no candidate" received
49 votes. There were 116 write-ins, but unfortunately the District hasnít
tallied them. The District of Columbia lets each party decide for itself whether
to show write-in space on its presidential primary ballots. The only other
party that held a presidential primary, the Democratic Party, opted for no
write-in space. Howard Dean won the Democratic primary in D.C. with 17,736
votes.

AMERICAN
PARTY

The American
Party national committee chose Dianne Templin of California for president,
and Al Moore of Virginia for vice-president, last month. Templin is also running
for Congress on the Constitution Party ticket.

REFORM
PARTY

The Reform
Party national convention will be July 30-August 1, in Columbus, Ohio.